


Ghost Of You

by SoftTears



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: don't worry there will be ship shit eventually, i had my friends beta this for me and i made em sad, sal and larry is platonic in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 06:33:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17278865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftTears/pseuds/SoftTears
Summary: Sally Face AU where instead of Sal murdering everyone, the squad forms a band and go on tours. After the release of their new hit and the beginning of their new album tour, Sal begins to reminisce on some repressed memories of an old friend.Song used is Ghost of You by 5 Seconds of Summer.





	Ghost Of You

Kurt Cobain once said that it was better to burn out than to fade away. 

Ernest Hemingway. Virginia Woolf. Hunter S. Thompson. Sylvia Plath. David Foster Wallace. Van Gogh. All stars who burnt out, far too soon if you were to ask someone on a street corner. If you asked them about Larry Johnson, however, they wouldn’t probably bat an eye. He burnt out long before he could leave an impact, and if you ask Sal Fisher, he would have made the greatest impact of them all.

“If only he had the time,” Sal once said during an interview. “Larry would have been our bassist. Or drummer. That seems more his style.” 

Instead, Neil had taken the role of bassist, with Maple on drums. Don’t get him wrong, Sal loved the two of them and they were amazing with their respective instruments. He just never thought he’d be this far without his best friend. 

Larry had always been a constant in Sal’s life, even after his own ended. He still had nightmares about his friend’s death, nearly seven years later. 

Sal still kept the note he found at the base of the treehouse. Neatly folded and tucked away in the case of his cellphone, away from the piles and piles of lined paper. It served as a reminder as to why he kept going anymore. It seemed right, poetic even. 

Larry would have wanted this. He would have wanted to be a part of their journey. He would have loved every second of their tours. Sal could sometimes imagine him on stage with them, headbanging wildly to the tune of their songs. Just like the first time the two boys met.

He would want his friends to keep living their lives, to never give up or give in to their demons.

He wouldn’t want them to burn out before they made their mark on the world. 

Sal inhaled a deep breath, looking himself in the reflection. Ashley had been kind enough to pull his hair up into his signature twin tails for him. He’d always be grateful for her. Without the others, he would have given up long ago. 

He was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his phone buzzing.

Ash: “5 minutes til we go on”  
Just above it was the date: September 16th.

Sal placed his phone, screen down, onto the desk. No, he wasn’t going to get choked up now. He had a concert to put on. This one was special. This one was for Larry. 

The blue haired boy took one last look in the mirror before clasping his prosthetic on, keeping eye contact with himself. 

“Why did you cry?”

Under his breath, he responded:

“Because you didn’t look away.” 

\--------------------------

Sal could barely hear Todd’s fingers on the piano keys over the screaming crowd. It’s still so surreal to him. No matter where they went, no matter how far from home, the crowds only seemed to get bigger and louder. Even after five years of touring and interviews, it always felt like his first time every time he looked out into the abyss of faces. 

Sal inhaled a deep breath as Todd continued the piano solo. He pulled the microphone to his face.

'Here I am waking up  
Still can't sleep on your side  
There's your coffee cup  
The lipstick stain fades with time  
If I can dream long enough  
You'd tell me I'd be just fine  
I'll be just fine'

He found Larry in the treehouse. 

His face was so pale. So lifeless. So cold. Sal didn’t know people could be that cold. 

Larry was known for his warmth. Warm hugs. Warm smile. Warm laugh. This wasn’t Larry, it couldn’t be. 

Larry Johnson wasn’t cold. 

But Sal Fisher didn’t care. He’d let himself freeze over. He wouldn’t let go of him. 

'So I drown it out like I always do  
Dancing through our house  
With the ghost of you  
And I chase it down  
With a shot of truth  
Dancing through our house  
With the ghost of you'

Sal had lost track of how long he’d been up there. His shaking hands reached for his cell phone, his other arm holding Larry close. He felt his knuckles go white and ache as he gripped the boy’s shirt. 

“Hello? Sal?”

What could he possibly say to her?

“Ash! I-I...Larry, he’s...I-I...I don’t know… hurry here… please, Ashley...I-I…” He could barely get his words out. He felt his throat closing as tears poured down his face.

“Oh my God. I’ll be right there, Sally.” 

By the time Ash had found them, he had run out of tears to cry.

'Cleaning up today  
Found that old Zepplin shirt  
You wore when you ran away  
And no one could feel your hurt  
We're too young, too dumb  
To know things like love  
But I know better now '

Larry Johnson was pronounced dead September 16th, 2003. 6:33 pm. Sal barely left his friend’s room for the first few weeks. He would turn up the stereo that still resided in the taller boy’s room, half-assedly headbanging, anything to pretend that there weren’t tears forming in his eyes. 

It wasn’t until his parents had staged an intervention and Lisa had taken his key card away that he had no choice but to return to his apartment. 

Sal still kept his Sanity’s Fall tee shirt, however. Even today, it was still a size too big. Sal had barely grown since senior year. Whether that was genetics or… other factors who knows. He often fell asleep holding the shirt close to him, on a few occasions he wore it to sleep. 

Some nights, he still does. 

'So I drown it out like I always do  
Dancing through our house  
With the ghost of you  
And I chase it down  
With a shot of truth  
Dancing through our house  
With the ghost of you'

Ashley Campbell tries her best, she truly does. It was her idea to start the band in the first place. To honor Larry, was her reasoning. Sal wishes it wasn’t so difficult to open up, to trust people. He trusted Larry with everything, he was Sal’s rock. He kept him happy and distracted from the thoughts in his head. He was the first person to see him without his prosthetic, the first person who made him feel loved and appreciated. Larry was his first real friend.

It wasn’t Ash or Todd’s fault they couldn’t take his place. 

'Too young, too dumb  
To know things like love  
Too young, too dumb'

Sal really was an idiot. He should’ve known something was going on in his friend’s mind. Why did he tell him about his dad? Of course, he wouldn’t have believed that his dad was a member of some alien race. Looking back on it now, even he thought it sounded less like the truth and more like the plot of a shitty sci-fi novel. 

He just wishes he got a proper goodbye. 

'So I drown it out like I always do  
Dancing through our house  
With the ghost of you  
And I chase it down  
With a shot of truth  
That my feet don't dance  
Like they did with you'

He had practiced this song a hundred times up in the tree house before leaving for tour. Whether Larry was there with him or not, he practiced every single song there. Sal always left before he could get a response. It was a dick move on his part, but he couldn’t ever bring himself to see him or hear his voice again. 

\--------------------------

With the last note that left his vocal chords, a choked sob rose out with it. Part of him must’ve forgotten that he was in front of thousands of people. The cheering went silent as he stood unmoving, a deer in headlights.

But this time, he let it all out.

And no one looked away.

**Author's Note:**

> "The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long."
> 
> – Lao Tzu


End file.
